Establishment

Upon Texas's independence, the Congress of the Republic of Texas adopted the Constitution of the Republic, which made its own provision to establish a system of public education in Texas. President Mirabeau B. Lamar's first speech to the Texas Congress iterated the need for education in a democracy; two weeks later, Ezekiel Cullen presented a report to the committee on education that contained a bill providing that twenty leagues of land be set aside for two colleges or universities, Texas A&M and the University of Texas. By the time Cullen's bill became a law on January 26, 1839, Congress had agreed to set aside fifty league of land. In addition, in the new capital of Austin were reserved and designated "College Hill."